How to Choose a Tiler: What to Ask, What to Check, and What the Quotes Should Tell You

I’m going to tell you how to assess tilers, including how to spot the ones who will do a poor job. This is unusual advice coming from a tiler, but it’s in my interest as much as yours. Bad tiling damages the reputation of every tiler, and I spend a meaningful portion of my year fixing work done by people who shouldn’t have been on the job.

Three-colour 3D cube floor, Beckenham. Complex setting-out like this is the test of a tiler. Every tile must be precisely placed or the optical illusion breaks. Ask to see photos of the most demanding job a tiler has completed. If they’ve never done anything beyond a straight lay, they may not have the skills for your project. Complex setting-out service

The questions that matter

Most homeowners ask tilers about price, availability, and how long the job will take. These are reasonable questions, but they tell you very little about whether the tiler is competent. The questions that reveal skill are technical, and a good tiler will answer them confidently and in detail.

”What adhesive will you use?”

A competent tiler will name a specific product or at minimum a specification class. “C2 flexible adhesive rated for the tile and substrate” is a good answer. “Whatever’s in the van” is not.

The adhesive needs to match the tile type (porcelain needs C2, ceramic can use C1), the substrate (timber floor needs flexible, concrete can use standard), and the environment (underfloor heating needs a UFH-rated product, wet areas need a waterproof-rated product).

A tiler who doesn’t think about adhesive specification is a tiler who doesn’t think about substrate preparation. They’re related.

”Do you tank shower areas?”

The answer should be yes, without hesitation, and they should be able to name the product they use. Mapei Mapelastic, BAL Tank-it, Schluter Kerdi membrane, or similar. A tiler who doesn’t mention tanking in a bathroom quote either doesn’t do it or doesn’t know they should.

Tanking is the single most important preparation step in a shower installation. Without it, water migrates through the grout over time and destroys the substrate behind. The damage is invisible until it’s severe. See: what is tanking.

”How do you handle the floor-to-wall joint?”

The correct answer is silicone, colour-matched to the grout. The floor-to-wall junction is a movement joint — the floor and wall move independently, and a rigid grout joint will crack. Silicone is flexible and absorbs the movement.

A tiler who grouts the floor-to-wall joint is cutting a corner. It looks fine initially. Within a year, the grout cracks, water gets in, and the base of the wall starts to deteriorate.

”Will you use a decoupling membrane on a timber floor?”

If the bathroom has a timber suspended floor — common in Victorian and Edwardian houses across Bromley and South East London — the answer should be yes. Timber floors move. Tiles crack on moving substrates unless decoupled. This is not optional in period properties. See: tiling in Victorian and Edwardian houses.

What to look at

Previous work

Ask for photos of completed jobs. Better still, ask to see a job in person or ask for a reference you can contact. Look at:

• Grout lines. Are they consistent in width? Are they fully filled? Grout lines that wander or vary in width indicate poor spacer discipline.
• Cuts. Are the cuts around fixtures neat? Are perimeter cuts consistent? Rough cuts indicate a poor tile cutter or rushing.
• Floor-to-wall joints. Are they siliconed? Is the silicone neat?
• Pattern alignment. If there’s a pattern, is it centred? Are the cuts balanced on opposite sides of the room?

See: how to tell good tiling from bad tiling for a full visual guide.

Online presence

A tiler’s Instagram, Facebook, or website showing recent work is a positive sign. It means they’re proud of what they do and willing to be judged by it. Consistent posting of completed jobs shows steady work — another positive indicator.

No online presence isn’t necessarily a red flag (some excellent older tilers don’t bother with social media), but it removes one way for you to assess the work.

Reviews

Checkatrade, Google, and MyBuilder reviews are useful but read them carefully. A tiler with 50 five-star reviews for painting and two reviews for tiling is a general builder, not a specialist tiler. Look for reviews that specifically mention tiling work, bathrooms, and kitchens.

Red flags in quotes

A quote significantly below the others. Three quotes for a bathroom: one says £1,800, one says £2,000, one says £900. The £900 quote is not a bargain. It’s a quote that has omitted substrate preparation, waterproofing, correct adhesive specification, or all three. The work will be faster because corners are being cut. The corners are the parts that prevent the job from failing.

No mention of preparation work. A quote that lists “tile bathroom walls and floor” without mentioning substrate assessment, tanking, priming, or adhesive specification is a quote for sticking tiles to a wall. That is not the same as professional tiling.

Available immediately. A good tiler in South East London is booked four to six weeks out. A tiler who can start tomorrow is either new (not necessarily bad, but less experienced), has been dropped from another job (potentially bad), or doesn’t have enough work to stay busy (a question to ask about).

No written quote. A verbal price is not a quote. A written quote should specify what is included, what adhesive and grout will be used, whether substrate preparation is included, whether the quote covers materials or labour only, and what guarantee is offered.

What a good tiler costs

In Bromley and South East London in 2026, a specialist tiler charges between £200 and £350 per day. A standard bathroom re-tile takes two to three days for labour. Materials are additional.

This means a full bathroom re-tile costs £600 to £1,050 in labour, plus materials. Complex jobs — wet rooms, natural stone, pattern work, large format — take longer and cost more.

These are not casual numbers. They reflect the cost of doing the work properly: correct substrate preparation, appropriate adhesive specification, waterproofing in wet areas, and the skill to execute clean, consistent tiling.

For a quote on your specific project, get in touch. I provide written quotes with full specification detail, and I’m happy to answer the technical questions listed above — they’re the same questions I’d ask if I were hiring a tiler myself.

See: tiling cost 2026 | bathroom tiling cost London | tile installation guide